The EmeraldBay at Key Colony

Santa Claus will be stopping by the EmeraldBay lobby on December 19th at 5:30PM-6:30PM.

Everyone is invited

There will be a Special Budget Board of Directors meeting on Tuesday December 16, 2008 at 7:00PM in the EmeraldBay library.

There will be a Board of Directors meeting directly after the Budget meeting at 7:15PM.

 All owners are welcome.

Dear Unit Owners: 

The purpose of this letter is to brief you on the status of the construction project which was approved some time ago, and which as you all know, is yet to start.

Let me start by saying that I am happy to report that we expect to sign the contract with the builder in the next few days and we are planning for the construction to actually begin in early October. The expected duration of the project is six months.

The causes for the delay have been numerous. After the selection of the builder and the formulation of the contract, our architect and the builder prepared a “boiler plate” contract that the American Institute of Architects (AIA) uses. That contract was reviewed and revised at length by both attorneys, followed by various meetings between our  architect, the builder, our manager and myself, intended to iron out any remaining differences pertaining to this document. We then had to go ahead to secure a builders insurance policy to protect us during the construction, which in turn took a while to get since the insurance companies where quite busy with hurricane related claims.

We then required our builder to apply for the Performance Construction Bond, which is taking longer than usual because of the financial crisis our country is facing, since banks are being very cautious on all their transactions. We have yet to see this resolved.

The builder has already selected the person to be the manager of the project and has been told he would hear from the bank by the end of next week regarding the Performance Construction Bond.

You will be happy to hear that all the new gym equipment has been purchased and is waiting in storage for installation once the new gym area is ready.

I want to finish by thanking you all for your patience and to reassure you that we at the Board  have been doing, and will continue to do, our best to speed up the project and finish it as soon as possible with the least inconvenience to all our unit owners. 

Nicolas Valls

President

Unit Owners EmeraldBay Condominium Association 

Subject: Report from the Board of Directors 

Dear Unit Owners, 

As you know, the real estate industry in this country is undergoing a crisis, with Florida and California among the most affected. Many owners have not been able to keep up with their mortgage payments and many properties are being foreclosed by lenders. 

While we at The EmeraldBay have not been immune to this crisis, so far the unit owners who have fallen behind on their payments are few in number and there have been only two units foreclosed on. 

Nevertheless, we are facing some loss of revenue to our approved budget because when a unit gets foreclosed, the Association receives only the equivalent of six months of maintenance, or 1% of the value of the mortgage whichever is less, and usually this is less than the amount owed in unpaid maintenance. So far we have been able to absorb such losses by reducing our controllable expenses and we have therefore not had to resort to a Special Assessment to cover the short fall. 

The Board of Directors has the fiduciary responsibility to prudently manage the resources of the Association.  We want to assure you that we are doing our best, in conjunction with our Manager Ms. Susie Pennell, to manage this situation. We will continue to monitor developments and keep you informed. 

As we look for ways to protect the Association from possible future losses, we have determined in consultation with our attorneys that a change in the rental lease agreements used in our building is in our best interest.  

Therefore, effective immediately all rental leases for units in our building will require that both the owner and the renter sign an addendum whereby both agree that if the owner falls behind on maintenance or assessment payments, the renter will be required to make future rental payments to the Association instead of to the owner until the owners maintenance is brought current. This will provide legal authority for the Association to recover any maintenance due from rental monies, remitting to the owner any remaining balance. 

For the Board of Directors,  Nicolas Valls, President

Click here to see the designs and an artist’s rendition of the general appearance for the new trellis, walkway, canopy and social areas. 

All residents who plan to be absent during the hurricane season must prepare their apartment prior to their departure by:

It is the resident’s responsibility to close all their shutters! Close all your shutters before you leave for the summer. If you are unable to close your shutters residents must designate a responsible firm or individual to care for their apartment. The Emerald Bay staff will not be able to help individual units as their responsibility lies with securing the EmeraldBay building and grounds.

HURRICANE WARNING: Means a hurricane is expected to strike within 24 hours or less.

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